We haven’t heard much lately about Michigan’s jobless rate from Gov. Rick Snyder.

There’s an excellent reason for that: it’s been rising for the past four months.

Michigan’s unemployment rate in August climbed to 9.4 percent, up from 8.5 percent in May. The state’s jobless rate is at its the highest point since November, when the rate stood at 9.6 percent.

The unemployment rate provides a quick reading on the economy and gives elected officials something to brag about when it’s falling.

But it doesn’t tell the whole story of how the state or the country’s economy is performing.

In the presidential race, for example, Republican Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama’s economic policies are failing because the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 43 of the 44 months Obama has been in office.

The president counters that more than 4 million U.S. jobs have been created since February of 2010.

Both are correct. Romney chooses to focus on the household survey that asks people if they are employed or unemployed. Obama relies on a survey that asks businesses for the number of jobs they had during the month.

Something similar is going on in Michigan.

While the state’s unemployment rate has been rising since May, Michigan added 5,400 payroll jobs in the same period. That’s not great, but at least it’s an increase.

It’s no surprise that Snyder has chosen to focus on other data that paint a more upbeat picture of Michigan’s economy.

Last week, he praised a Comerica Bank index that showed Michigan’s economy performing at the highest level in nearly a decade as “great economic news.”

Michigan also ranked second to North Dakota in economic health in the first quarter of the year, according to the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States.

And recently released census data showed that real median household income in Michigan jumped 2.4 percent last year from 2010, while it fell 1.7 in the nation as a whole.

The bad news, according to demographer Kurt Metzger, is that Michigan’s real median household income last year of $48,879 was a whopping $13,333 less than in 1999, just before the state entered its “lost decade.”

Still, Michigan seems to be finding its way back to a stronger economy. And Snyder is smart not to focus solely the unemployment rate, even though it’s lower now than when he took office.

As a former colleague of mine once said about governors who crow too much about an improved jobless rate: